SEER is an authoritative source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States. SEER currently collects and publishes cancer incidence and survival data from population-based cancer registries covering approximately 28 percent of the U.S. population.

Tools

The information used on this page will not be used to send unsolicited emails or shared with a third party.

HPF:

US Mortality Data, 1969-2011

US Mortality data, collected and maintained by the National
Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), can be analyzed
with the SEER*Stat software. The data include all
causes of death, not just cancer deaths. NCHS granted
the SEER program limited permission to provide the
mortality data to the public.

Accessing the US Mortality Data

Obtaining the mortality data
requires the following:

US Mortality data are only available to SEER*Stat users who access these data in client-server mode. The data are not distributed on the SEER*Stat DVD or compressed data files.

A signed research data agreement is required to access the US Mortality and SEER data through SEER*Stat.

You will be given a username and password within two business days of
SEER receiving your signed SEER Research Data Agreement allowing you to access the
data utilizing SEER*Stat's Client-Server Mode.

Suggested Citation

A citation for the use of NCHS mortality data for publication purposes is required. When you select a mortality database from the Data Tab during a SEER*Stat session, the suggested citation will appear at the bottom of the Data Tab window.

Identifying Information Excluded from the Mortality Data

Every effort has been made to exclude information that could
be used to identify individuals in the US mortality data distributed
with SEER*Stat. Information such as race, age, sex, and demographic
characteristics are included in the data for research purposes,
but the level of detail has been reduced to rule out person-recognition.

For 1969-2011, deaths are associated with the population data for 3 racial groups: White, Black, Other. The "Other" race category consists of American Indian/Alaskan Native and Asian/Pacific Islander combined. (See Race Recode Changes for more information).

County-Level Year of Death Recode Variable Groupings

In mortality databases aggregated with county attributes, SEER defines year of death groupings so the data can only be analyzed for a minimum of a 3-year group. The groupings are defined as follows:

the latest group is always a 5-year grouping;

the 2nd most recent is a 3-, 4-, or 5-year grouping, and after 5, it is split into two 3-year groups;

All earlier groups are 3-year.

Data Changes

The following changes have
been made to the US Mortality Data since previous
years:

Suppression on fewer than 10 deathsBeginning with the release of the 1969-2008 mortality database (September 2011), data is suppressed if the number of deaths is fewer than 10.

Suppression on fewer than 4 deaths
In the release of the 1969-2007 mortality database (June 30, 2010), data is suppressed if the number of deaths is fewer than 4. This change was also made to all the previously-released mortality databases available though SEER*Stat. If older SEER*Stat sessions included counts of 1, 2, or 3, the results will change if the analyses are repeated.

Mortality data for the state of Colorado:
For the 1969-2003 data, the NCI version
of the US mortality file differs slightly from mortality
data obtained directly from the National Center for Health
Statistics (NCHS) for the state of Colorado. Broomfield
County, Colorado was newly created from parts of Adams,
Boulder, Jefferson, and Weld Counties, effective November
15, 2001. Broomfield appears as a separate county in the
NCHS mortality data in 2003. However, for 2002, the State
of Colorado was instructed to recode the Broomfield County
resident deaths to Adams County for submission to NCHS. We
have updated the US mortality file with information provided
by the State of Colorado and reassigned these deaths among
Broomfield County residents (i.e., the ones recoded to Adams
County in 2002) to Broomfield County. Thus, the Broomfield
County, Colorado deaths are available back through 2002 for
analysis with SEER*Stat.

Mortality data for the state of AlaskaFor the 1990-2002 data, the NCI version of the US mortality file differs slightly from mortality data obtained directly from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) for the state of Alaska. In 1990, the Denali Borough was created from the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, but the US mortality file contains data for the combined areas through 2002. We have updated the US mortality file based on information provided by the State of Alaska to report deaths in Denali Borough and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area separately starting in 1990.